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Gonbei
Gonbei (subtitled The Legendary Takeyari Master) is an inhabitant of Planet Montoj and the pilot of NORA MA-05 Kuebiko, making his appearance in Blaster Master Zero 2. His support droid is Tae and his support animal is a dragonfly named Tappy. Appearance Gonbei wears what looks to be a modified feudal samurai armor, with plates that cover most of his pectorals but otherwise leaves his abdomen exposed. He wears an overcoat with what appears to be fuzzy fur rimming the edges, and an ornate green pauldron on his right shoulder with a golden crown sticking out of it. Plot Role Pre-game Gonbei was an ordinary farmer living his life on Planet Montoj. Suddenly, village life began to take a turn for the worse. The taxes rose to exorbitant levels. The crops suffered failure after failure each year. The fields were ravaged day in, day out by "unknown youkai" (which were actually mutants). Unable to simply give away what little they had to survive, Gonbei and other villagers met the governor in hopes of reducing the taxes. When the governor refused to even listen and threw them out, they formed an "ikki", an army of rebellious farmers. When they fought all the way to the governor's office, they found that he'd been replaced by the mutant named Zavira, a special mutant capable of taking over people and using them as a method to gain strength. Countless villagers were slaughtered without a way to fight back against the mutants. When Tae arrived with Kuebiko, things took a turn for the better, but the ikki continued to suffer casualties until Gonbei was the only one left. ''Blaster Master Zero 2 Gonbei is minding his own business, tending his crops when Jason suddenly rolls in trampling all over them (which is unavoidable since one of the keys needed to reach Gonbei's arena is right in the middle of a field). Understandably indignant about the vegetable violation, Gonbei refuses to listen to diplomacy and instead starts attacking. Only after receiving a beatdown from Jason (and yielding the Shift-Up Attacker Blast Counter) does he get a transmission from Tae explaining that other MA pilots do in fact exist, and that he should really listen to what other people say. Upon peacefully resolving the misunderstanding and undergoing introductions, Gonbei explains that he's trying to defeat Zavira, but can't because Kuebiko's repairs require parts they don't immediately possess. Eve offers some of Gaia-SOPHIA's spare parts and her assistance, which are gratefully accepted. Gonbei then clears the bamboo spears that blocked the path up the mountain. At Gonbei's hideout, he and Tae are grateful for the parts needed to fix up Kuebiko. He provides Jason with Kuebiko's maneuver data, allowing G-Sophia to execute the Recoil Jump. He also offers some advice on how to reach Zavira, and says he'll join up with Jason as soon as Kuebiko is ready. After Jason seemingly destroys Zavira and gets his Access Key, Gonbei suddenly barges in via comms, warning Jason to get back to Sophia. Turns out, Zavira is only one part of a gigantic, literally mountainous mutant known as Gathervira. Battle soon unfolds, as Gonbei uses Kuebiko's cannon to keep Gathervira stunned while Jason enters the titan to destroy all the Zavira clones. Eventually, the giant mutant finally falls, and Gonbei briefly celebrates the finale of his ikki, though as Jason muses, his fight with the mutants is still a long ways from over. After an even briefer goodbye, Tae wastes no time complaining about the strain Gonbei's put on Kuebiko again, to his sheepish laughter. Side-Quest Some time after the defeat of Zavira (or immediately after), Jason can visit Gonbei again at his hideout. He explains that the presence of mutants despite Zavira's destruction is due to an island out on the sea acting as a mutant nest of sorts. Gonbei would like to investigate, but Kuebiko needs to be upgraded for going out to sea, which requires 8 gold coins buried in the mountains by Gonbei's ancestors as "special parts." Since Kuebiko's already taken apart for maintenance and upgrades, it'd be a pain for them to go grab them only to have to disassemble Kuebiko again. When Jason returns with the coins, Gonbei gives him an Emblem of Kuebiko as thanks, though nobody present is exactly sure what the Emblem is for, so Eve simply holds onto it for analysis. True Ending During the fight with Drolrevo, Gonbei (alongside Kanna and Stein) warp to Eve in their MAs to provide her with covering fire as she charges Andreia's Acceleration Blast. Trivia * Gonbei is the cornerstone of Planet Montoj's being an extended reference to Sunsoft's 1985 arcade and Nintendo Famicom release [[wikipedia:Ikki (video game)|''Ikki]]: ** His boss title, The Legendary Takeyari Master, is derived from its 2013 novel adaptation, subtitled "LEGEND OF TAKEYARI MASTER". Gonbei is himself named after the game's Player 1 character. ** His boss attacks, consisting of a throwing sickle and a bamboo spear rush, are the Ikki player character's core attack methods. The spear attack was not present in the original arcade version, but introduced in the Famicom build and enhanced for 2006's Ikki Mobile. ** Collecting 8 Gold Coins for his Emblem side quest is a callback to one of Ikki’s level clear conditions. ** Depending on how much of the farm is destroyed, the difficulty of Gonbei's battle is increased. Destroying all of the farmland will place him at his maximum difficulty, while destroying only what is necessary to acquire the key places him at his weakest. * Prior to the v1.2 patch on April 1, 2019, Gonbei's name was misrendered in two different examples on his boss title card. The EN script used "Gonbey", while the JP script used "Gonbe". The Kuebiko team's tab on the Official Blaster Master Zero 2 Characters Page characterizes the former as a byproduct of Tae's accent, which is otherwise rendered in the tradition of using American Southerner drawl in place of a Kansai dialect. Category:Characters Category:Bosses Category:Blaster Master Zero 2